Severin Freund is the new World Champion on the large hill. The 26-year-old took a more than clear win in Falun with a new hill record and came in about 22 points ahead of Gregor Schlierenzauer and Rune Velta.

With 134 m Freund was already in the lead after the first round. In the final he crowned his own performance, improved his hill record by 0.5 m to 135.5 m, scored 268.7 points and won the first individual title at World Championships for Germany since Martin Schmitt 2001. Freund said afterwards: “I had two great jumps here tonight and even improved my own hill record. So yes, it was a great day for me."

Also Gregor Schlierenzauer was in top shape at the right time. After the record World Cup winner was struggling with his shape for months, the jumped on 128 m and 130 m in Falun and won silver, 22.3 points behind Freund. This was already his tenth medal at World Championships. The Austrian said: “I was so close to gold, but I won silver and winning a medal is always good. I am very happy."

Rune Velta, who surprisingly won the normal hill title on Saturday, moved up from eighth to third in the final round and won bronze with 126.5 m and 128.5 m and 242.9 points. The Norwegian told later: "I made a few mistakes in both of my jumps and I'm still happy that I won a medal. Now I'll try to get another one in the team competition on Saturday."

Still no medal for Slovenia

Peter Prevc was fourth and missed the first Slovenian medal at this WSC by only 1.1 points. Prevc showed jumps on 134 m and 125.5 m.

Stefan Kraft, third on the normal hill, jumped on 125 m and 125.5 m and finished fifth. Also his teammate Michael Hayboeck showed a good performance and came in 14th. Manuel Poppinger failed to qualify for the final round and will have to fight for his place on the team on Saturday. Anders Bardal, World Champion 2013, was second after the first round with 131.5 m, but he was not able to defend this good position with 122 m in the final and with 236.5 points he finished sixth. The seventh place went to world record holder Anders Fannemel with 233.9 points, 0.3 points ahead of Czech Roman Koudelka.

Zyla best Pole

Piotr Zyla came in on a good ninth place with 229.8 points, while his teammate and defending champion Kamil Stoch could not be satisfied in 12th. Markus Eisenbichler was tenth with 227.9 points, his teammate Richard Freitag was 15th. Andreas Wellinger, silver medalist of the Junior World Championships, could not compete due to a gastrointestinal infection. Noriaki Kasai had no chance to win a medal today in 11th, his teammate Junshiro Kobayashi was 13th. Jan Matura presented himself in a surprisingly good shape in 16th.

Deschwanden ahead of Ammann

Best Swiss was Gregor Deschwanden in 17th, four time Olympic Champion Simon Ammann was 23rd after his long break due to injury. With Kilian Peier (30th) a third Swiss athlete could qualify for the final round. Johann Andre Forfang finished 18th and showed that he would deserve to compete in the team competition on Saturday, where the Norwegians are now among the top favorites.

The Finns don't have to worry about that, but with Janne Ahonen and Jarkko Maeaettae in 19th and 22nd two of them could make the cut for the final round. The Slovenes are still struggling with their shape. The places 25 and 26 of Jernej Damjan and Nejc Dezman don't give reason for optimism for the team competition. Matjaz Pungertar, who replaced Jurij Tepes, missed the final in 37th. Dimitry Vassiliev was the best Russian in 21st, Dennis Kornilov was 27th.